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Miss Proell Dominates Downhill Field

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SAPPORO, Japan, Feb. 3—If anything is certain in such a precarious sport as skiing, it's that Annemarie Proell will win Saturday's downhill, opening event of the Olympic Alpine program.

The 18‐year‐old, freckledfaced Austrian is seemingly in a class by herself in this test of speed, most highly regarded of the three Alpine events.

A fine all‐round skier, she took the World Cup in 1971 with 210 of a possible total of 225 points and is a shooin to win it again this season now that Frangoise Macchi of France, her only possible challenger, tore a ligament in practice yesterday and is now hors de combat in a plaster cast.

She's on Her Own

But the downhill is Annemarie's specialty. She is a big girl at 150 pounds and has the height for it. She has a low center of gravity. But what she also has that eludes the rest is an instinctive knowledge of what line to take down the mountain.

Annemarie has won four of the five major downhills on the European circuit this winter. One of her victories was by more than two seconds, a remarkable margin an event usually won in tenths of a second.

“Watch her,” say the coaches to their charges. “Tuck, get down low and go like Proell.”

As Annemarie dominates the women's downhill, so, does Karl Schranz the men, with three straight triumphs before the season was broken off at Kitzbuhel. But Karl has gone from the Olympic program and the race for honors lies between Henri Duvillard of France, the complete skier; Jean‐Noel Augert, the slalom and giant slalom specialist, and quite probably Gustavo Thoeni of Italy, who set the skiing world afire a year ago but is way down the Big Ten list this season.

“Last year I learn the downhill,” says Thoeni, “this year I forget it.”

There is not an American in either the women's or men's top ten. On this record, their medal chances here appear minimal. Surprising is the absence of Tyler Palmer, the flamboyant redhead from Kearsarge, N. H., a breakneck skier who can take the lot or, as has happened so often this season, come a cropper.

At the Arlberg‐Kandahar in December, the 21‐year‐old Palmer flashed out of the ruck to win it from Augert, though nearly spilling at the end. At Berchtesgaden in January he appeared the winner because the gate judge failed to report that he slipped past a gate, and it was not for hours that the special slalom result was corrected.

The Cochran sisters from the Green Mountains—quiet, phlegmatic Barbara, 20, and effervescent Marilyn, 21 —were rated near the top in the slalom at Wengen, Switzerland, two weeks back and there is a strong feeling here that they are coming into form.

Brother Bob, 19, supposedly a downhiller, was third behind Augert and Thoeni in the slalom at Wengen, Switzerland, two weeks back and may enter that event here. He reported today that a ligament in his right ankle needed surgery later on, but “it's surprising what support a good boot will give.”

A version of this archives appears in print on February 4, 1972, on Page 21 of the New York edition with the headline: Miss Proell Dominates Downhill Field. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe